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TO HIS 
GRANDSON, 

WHOM MY FATHER KNEW AND LOVED, 
AND TO HIS 

GRANDDAUGHTER, 

WHOM DEATH PREVENTED HIM FROM KNOWING AND LOVING, 

THESE PAGES ARE AFFECTIONATELY 

DEDICATED 



HENRY MOREHOUSE TABER 
i 

ALTHOUGH the subject of this memoir 
passed sixty-eight out of the seventy- 
L three years of his life in New York City 
and was closely identified with its business and 
social growth, yet his New England birth and 
inheritance played so large a part in his life that 
attention must first be directed to his ancestry. 

All his progenitors for two centuries had been 
men and women of Massachusetts, Rhode Island 
and Connecticut. The earliest ancestor in Amer- 
ica in the Taber line was Philip, "one of several 
men of ability who have borne their part in the 
great charges of the foundation" of Plymouth Col- 
ony. He came to America in 1633, took the oath 
of freeman and became one of the representatives 
to the first General Court. Another of the Ply- 
mouth pioneers from whom my father was de- 
scended was Kenelm Winslow, likewise freeman 
and representative, and brother of, Edward Wins- 
low, who was one of the Mayflower passengers 
and who became Governor of the Colony. Still 

9 



io Henry Morehouse Taber 

another ancestor, Francis Cooke, was also one of the 
Mayflower pilgrims and a sturdy and prominent 
member of the new colony. 

In my father's veins also flowed the blood of 
a soldier. His great-grandfather, Levi Taylor, 
served in the French and Indian wars, and was at 
Crown Point under General Amherst in 1759; and 
later became lieutenant of a company in a Con- 
necticut regiment during the Revolutionary War. 
Among others of his ancestors he numbered several 
selectmen, town clerks and surveyors of highways, 
and still others filled the offices of assessor, justice 
of the peace, judge of the Probate Court and judge 
of the Court of Common Pleas. 

The family of his mother, Esther Morehouse, 
had had their home in Fairfield county, Connecti- 
cut, for many generations. She was a woman 
of great force as well as of strong affections. Her 
erect carriage, which was maintained almost to 
the day of her death at the age of ninety-six, com- 
ported well with the inflexibility of her principles 
and her strength of character. Her husband, 
Corey Taber, was born in Massachusetts. Though 
likewise somewhat rigorous in the training of his 
sons, he was of a most sociable disposition and 
genial temperament. 

It was of such ancestry and of such parentage 



A Memoir ii 

that Henry Morehouse Taber was born on 8th Feb- 
ruary, 1 825, the fifth of eight children. His birth- 
place was a town that was then known as Saugatuck 
but is now included in Westport, Connecticut. 
Here he remained only about five years, when his 
father removed the family to New York City. His 
education was obtained first at a public school and 
later at the private school of Forrest & Mulligan, 
one of the largest and best in the city at that time. 
With a view to inculcating in the son a taste for the 
law, his father placed him for about a year in the 
law office of Ketchum & Fessenden. Not becom- 
ing enamoured of the law, however, at the age of 
fifteen he entered into business in which he remained 
more or less actively engaged up to the time of his 
death — a period of fifty-seven years. His first busi- 
ness connection was that of clerk in the office of his 
father, who was engaged in the cotton brokerage 
business at 76 Wall street under the firm-name of 
Taber & Jenkins. After a seven years' term of 
service as clerk to the firm of Bogert & Kneeland, 
he returned in 1848 to the office of Taber & Jen- 
kins. By this time his father had died, and his 
elder brother (Charles Corey Taber) was continuing 
the business with Mr. Jenkins. In the following 
year the latter died while his partner was abroad, 
and through this combination of circumstances the 



12 Henry Morehouse Taber 

whole care and responsibility of this considerable 
business was for a time cast upon the shoulders of 
the brother Henry, when he was but twenty-four 
years old. This experience, entailing hard work 
and long hours, no doubt did much to develop the 
self-reliance and capacity for responsibility that char- 
acterised his later career. 

In 1849 tne two brothers formed a partnership 
as cotton brokers under the firm-name of Taber & 
Co., but within two years business disasters over- 
took them and they were obliged to suspend pay- 
ment. Having effected an honourable settlement 
with their creditors, they resumed business under the 
same firm-name and later under the name of C. C. 
& H. M. Taber. During the Civil War the trans- 
actions of the firm reached a considerable magnitude, 
and shortly after the close of that period they 
established branch houses or agencies at New 
Orleans, Memphis, Mobile, Providence, Boston, 
and Fall River. In 1871 another firm was 
formed in which the brother Henry was a special 
partner, but again business losses, combined with 
heavy peculations by some of the employees, 
forced the house into liquidation. It is note- 
worthy, as being characteristic of the subject of this 
sketch, that every debt was paid in full although 
this necessitated the payment of a very considerable 



A Memoir 13 

sum by the special partner above the amount of 
his limited liability. 

In 1876 he entered into a new partnership, under 
the name of Henry M. Taber & Co., with his son, 
William Phillips Taber, whose sympathetic co-op- 
eration and sound judgment he found helpful and 
reliable. This partnership continued until his son's 
untimely death in October, 1897, — less than two 
months before his own, which occurred on the 24th 
of December following. 

In addition to the cotton business which he con- 
ducted under the foregoing firm-names, he and his 
brother became at various times largely interested 
in real estate, both in New York City and Provi- 
dence. Among other properties so owned was the 
building at the corner of Pearl and Beaver streets, 
in which he had his office for thirty-two years, and 
also a tract of land at Riverside Drive and 119th 
street, which was sold at auction in the spring of 
1897. This sale constituted the largest real estate 
transaction in New York City for that year, and the 
extensive preparations for it, which were personally 
conducted by him at the age of seventy-two years, 
furnished a striking illustration of his energy and 
vitality. 

These two brothers also owned and operated 
various steamers, among others the propeller 



14 Henry Morehouse Taber 

" Vicksburg " and the side-wheeler " City of Provi- 
dence." They were jointly interested in the Utica 
Cotton Company and its mill at Utica. My father 
was president of that company, and was also one of 
two lessees of a large cotton mill at Baltic, Connecti- 
cut. These various interests involved much litiga- 
tion and many large losses — some of the latter 
being caused by the unforeseen exigencies of busi- 
ness, but others resulting from embezzlement by 
business confidants. 

The same qualities that my father manifested in 
his private business made him much sought after 
in corporate business enterprises. A man of 
unswerving rectitude and of a nice sense of honour 
that abhorred the [suspicion of unfairness could not 
fail to be in demand as trustee. Among the many 
institutions in which he held positions of trust may 
be mentioned the Continental National Bank and 
the Manhattan Savings Institution. In each of 
these he was] one of the directors for a period of 
about thirty years, and his connection with the 
United States Lloyds — as a member of the advisory 
committee — covered the same period. A similar 
position was held by him in two other marine 
insurance companies. He had at different times 
been a director in six fire insurance companies, and 
at the time of his death was serving the Home 



A Memoir 15 

Insurance Company in that capacity, having been 
elected in 1865. He was one of the incorporators and 
trustees of the Continental Trust Company. His 
membership in the New York Cotton Exchange 
dated from its organisation, and that in the Chamber 
of Commerce continued for thirty-eight years. In the 
language of a resolution passed shortly after his 
death by one of the boards of which he had been a 
member — "the many directorships and positions 
of honour and trust held by him in other institutions 
of various kinds bear further testimony to the high 
esteem in which he was held by the community at 
large, and serve to evidence a public recognition of 
the exalted integrity of purpose and practice that 
animated and signalised his long and honourable 
career as a merchant and citizen." The resolution 
further records " the bank's gratitude for the bene- 
fits thus derived from Mr. Taber's long connection 
with it, both as director and client — with an added 
record of the deep sense of loss on the part of this 
board, as well as of each individual member thereof 
to whom he had endeared himself by his uniform 
kindness and the genial courtesy that characterised 
his intercourse with all." The minutes of other 
institutions speak of his " devotion and loyalty," his 
being " constant and faithful to his duties " and "his 
keen business instinct and unwavering integrity." 



1 6 Henry Morehouse Taber 

He was further recommended to his business 
associates by his zeal and energy. Not only was he 
impelled to a course of action by high principles, but 
he had the will and determination to maintain it and 
the perseverance to follow it until success should be 
achieved. As a creditor he was patient and liberal; 
as a debtor, scrupulously honest ; and as an 
employer, considerate and generous. In minor 
matters, too, his characteristics were marked — pre- 
cision and punctiliousness in small as well as large 
obligations, and promptitude in correspondence and 
in all business and social duties. His intensely 
systematic habits of life were carried into his busi- 
ness relations. His conservatism with respect to 
personal habits was evidenced by his clinging to a 
custom that antedated the postal delivery system. As 
long as he lived he retained a letter-box in the New 
York post-office and was in the habit of sending 
thither for his mail several times each day. Punc- 
tuality was also one of his lesser virtues; it is probably 
within bounds to say that during his long career he 
was never late for an appointment. 

His usefulness as trustee was not confined to 
institutions of business. Charitable enterprises also 
profited by his judgment, sympathy and activity. 
He was a life-member of the Charity Organization 
Society of New York, and with the Northern Dis- 



A Memoir 17 

pensary he was connected for over twenty years, at 
first as director and later as president. One of the 
incorporators of the Presbyterian Hospital in 1 868, 
he served on its Board of Managers and as record- 
ing secretary until 1884. His connection with the 
Board of Trustees of the First Presbyterian Church, 
as treasurer and subsequently as president, terminated 
in 1880 after a service of over twenty years. 

When one comes to speak of my father as a 
public-spirited citizen, the catalogue of his services 
is a long one. Jury duty with him was a conscien- 
tious obligation which he never shirked. He served 
frequently during his long life, and in 1890 was 
foreman of the grand jury that investigated the 
police scandals brought to light by the Lexow com- 
mission. For many years he was connected with 
almost every movement of citizens directed towards 
political reform or patriotic celebration. In 1863 
he was one of a committee of arrangements for a 
public dinner given in honour of the admiral of the 
Russian fleet ; in the following year he was on the 
executive committee of the Farragut testimonial 
fund; as secretary of a citizens' committee he was 
active in arranging for the Lincoln memorial cere- 
monies in New York, and one of a similar com- 
mittee to tender a reception to General Grant at the 
close of the Civil War. In 1867 ne assisted in 



1 8 Henry Morehouse Taber 

organising a movement to present General Grant's 
name for the Presidency as " the candidate of the 
commercial, business and industrial interests of 
New York," and was secretary of a committee 
appointed in 1874 to oppose the inflation of the 
currency and to present to the President a peti- 
tion signed by twenty-five hundred bankers and 
merchants of New York. 

His interest in politics began at an early age. 
During the period of his apprenticeship in the law 
office of Ketchum & Fessenden, Daniel Webster, 
who was an intimate friend of one of the partners, 
was in the habit of calling there frequently. An 
acquaintance between the statesman and the young 
law student thus sprang up and no doubt contributed 
much to inspire the latter with his life-long admira- 
tion for eloquence and his lofty ideals of statesman- 
ship. When only fifteen years old he joined the 
Boys' Harrison Association and attended some 
political meeting every evening during the presi- 
dential campaign of 1 840. Again in 1 844, though 
still not old enough to vote, he was, as he afterward 
wrote, "intensely interested in the campaign of that 
year," and "went home with a sad heart" the night 
he heard of Clay's defeat. During one of Mr. 
Clay's visits to the Astor House in New York, my 
father, though a mere lad and without other intro- 



FROM A PHOTOGRAPH 
TAKEN IN 1895 





1 8 Henry Morehouse Taber 



organising a movement to present General Grant's 
name for the Presidency as "the candidate of the 
commercial, business and industrial interests of 
New York," and was secretary of a committee 
appointed in 1874 to oppose the inflation of the 
currency and to present to the President a peti- 
tion signed, by twenty-five hundred bankers and 
merchants of New York. 

His intc an early age. 

During the : the law 

office of Ke Webster, 

HIAJIOOTGHS: A MOJH 

who v, ,~ 8l m r A1 ^ AT irtners, 

in the hab • An 

ace the statesman and the young 

no doubt contributed 
much to inspire the latter with his life-long admira- 

lofty ideals of statesman- 
ship. When only fifteen years old he joined the 
Boys' Harrison Association and attended some 
political meeting ing during the presi- 

de? aign of 1840. Again in 1844, though 

still not old enough to vote, he was, as he afterward 
wr rested in the campaign of that 

ir," and "went home with a sad heart" the night 
he heard of Clay's defeat. During one of Mr. 
Clay's visits stor House in New York, my 

father, th iere .lad and without other intro- 









, _ 




A Memoir 19 

duction than his ardent admiration, called on the 
statesman and was received with characteristic 
cordiality. His sympathies were with the Whigs, 
largely on account of their high-tariff policy, which 
always remained one of the cardinal principles in his 
political creed ; and when the Republican party 
came into existence, it found in him a ready and 
warm advocate. In 1856 he took an active part in 
the campaign for the election of General Fremont. 
At the outbreak of the Civil War, all the ardour 
of his enthusiastic nature was aroused in behalf of 
the Union cause. His anti-slavery sentiment was 
intense. An apparently trivial incident of that time 
is significant of his feeling. A small American 
flag, discoloured by age, was found hanging in his 
office after his death. It had been placed over his 
desk at the beginning of the nation's struggle for 
existence — at a time when even patriotic men were 
doubtful of the righteousness and expediency of the 
struggle, and when to display the national colours 
signified much courage and resolution. He joined 
the 2 2d Regiment of the New York State Militia 
with the expectation of going to the front, but the 
consideration of his family's dependence upon him 
and the force of their persuasion compelled him to 
resign. He gave, however, of his time and sub- 
stance to the Federal cause; scarcely a war meeting 



20 Henry Morehouse Taber 

was held in New York in the arrangements for which 
he was not active ; of the great Sanitary Fair for the 
benefit of Union soldiers he was among the pro- 
moters and subscribers. He was one of the 
organisers of the Loyal League of Union Citizens, 
and in 1862 joined the Union League Club, the 
organisation of which had been prompted by the 
same patriotic impulse. During the entire period of 
the war, his loyalty and devotion were unflagging. 
In later life there deepened within him, under 
the mellowing influence of years, a conviction of the 
horrors of war. Though it cannot be doubted 
that his patriotism would again have asserted itself 
in promoting a conflict of arms had an equally 
righteous cause arisen, yet war was abhorrent to his 
humane nature and he greatly deprecated the spirit 
of militarism that manifested itself in our own land 
some years before his death. He conceived that 
the love of country is best evinced by promotion of 
the arts of peace, and he became a warm advocate 
of the settlement of international disputes by arbi- 
tration. For principle he was ever ready to fight, 
if need be; but the kind of combat that most met 
with his approval was a battle of intellect. Being a 
lover of the country's flag, he never failed to display 
it from his house, whether in town or in the country, 
on every occasion of patriotic celebration. 



A Memoir 21 

His public spirit was further manifested by 
encouragement of the various institutions in New 
York that stood for the promotion of science and 
art and the advancement of knowledge. He became 
a life member of the National Academy of Design 
in the days of its infancy, and upon his death its 
council certified to their " appreciation of his early 
encouragement of American art." He also held 
life-memberships in the Metropolitan Museum of 
Art, the Mercantile Library Association, the 
American Geographical Society, the New York 
Historical Society and the American Museum of 
Natural History. 

An evidence of his progressiveness as well as of 
his courage was afforded by his warm advocacy of 
cremation as the most rational method of disposing 
of mortal remains. He held for a time the office 
of president of the New York Cremation Society. 
Since the movement commended itself to his reason 
as being in accordance with correct sanitary princi- 
ples, and to his consideration for the welfare of the 
living, he suffered no sentiment or conservatism to 
oppose his adoption of it. The incineration of his 
own body took place in compliance with his repeated 
and solemn injunctions to his family. The fact that 
the popular mind had not stamped this practice with 
approval rendered it all the more his duty, as he 



22 Henry Morehouse Taber 

conceived it, to commend it by his own example in 
death. 

A firm advocate of the political equality of the 
sexes and an ardent admirer and champion of 
womanhood, he was attracted to the Nineteenth 
Century Club by its admission of women as well as 
of men to its membership and to its discussions, and 
he gladly enrolled himself a member of that organ- 
isation. Another of its features that appealed to 
him was its tolerance of the free discussion of all 
subjects. He was an enthusiastic member of the 
New England Society and a faithful attendant at 
each recurring banquet of the society on " Fore- 
fathers' day," where he keenly enjoyed renewing the 
reminiscences of the Pilgrims and their achieve- 
ments. 

The only social club with which he was con- 
nected, besides those already mentioned, was the 
Metropolitan Club of New York, but this he rarely 
visited — " my club-house being my home, in 
preference," as he explained in one of his letters. 
The same sentiment was evidenced by the legend 
" There's no place like home," which met the eye 
in the house at No. 42 West Twelfth street, where 
his last thirty-seven years, embracing the greater 
part of an exceptionally happy married life, were 
passed. 



A Memoir 23 



On October 3, 1855, n * s marriage took place 
with Mary Elizabeth, second daughter of Rev. 
William Wirt Phillips, D.D., pastor of the First 
Presbyterian Church of New York. Three sons, 
of whom one died in infancy, and a daughter, were 
born to them. This marriage proved to be a rare 
union of two deeply affectionate natures. In his 
wife, my father found a noble comrade, worthy of 
the great devotion of which he was capable. Upon 
her and upon his children he lavished the wealth of 
his loving nature — tender, unselfish, indulgent. 

Child-life appealed particularly to him. An 
incident that occurred during the summer of 1897 
was strikingly characteristic. A child was stolen 
from its home in Albany. Though the bereaved 
parents were complete strangers to him, he evinced 
the deepest interest, communicating to the public 
through the newspapers and offering a reward for the 
child's return ; and when the lost was finally found, 
his tears of joy expressed the gladness that choked 
his utterance. 

The precepts that he was fond of instilling into 
the minds of his young children indicate some of 
his own strongest characteristics. The homely 
motto " Mind your own business " was the forcible 
expression of his horror of meddlesomeness. He 
recognised to the fullest extent the right of liberty 



24 Henry Morehouse Taber 

of choice, and studiously avoided any attempt to 
control even his own children's tastes and choices 
of occupations. His habitual cautiousness was 
indicated by the injunction " You can't be too care- 
ful;" " A place for everything and everything in its 
place" expressed his own methodical habits, and 
" Work first, play afterwards " was used to impress 
on childish minds the stern lesson of duty and self- 
control which he himself had learned so well. 

He possessed a kindliness and gentleness that 
combined rather oddly with an ardent nature and 
high temper. Towards dumb animals he was ten- 
der-hearted, and particularly protested against the 
cruelty of vivisection. All forms of suffering and 
want appealed to him. His open-handed generos- 
ity attracted a large circle of needy ones to whom 
lavish assistance was given. Those who had suf- 
fered financial reverses, widows, self-supporting 
women, and young men struggling to sustain their 
families were among the special objects of his friend- 
liness. Besides making loans and gifts, he added 
to the cares of his own business the responsibility of 
carrying many small accounts of those who could 
not have obtained elsewhere so generous a return 
for their slender investments. In addition to 
pecuniary assistance, he was constantly making 
presents to persons of all classes with whom he came 



A Memoir 25 



in contact. With generosity he combined thought- 
fulness and foresight. It delighted him to surprise 
a friend by filling some need or by gratifying some 
half-expressed wish. He was especially ready to 
reward attention to duty and deeds of heroism. 
His life was really a long career of helpfulness. 

My father was an energetic traveller. He 
delighted in visiting distant places, observing differ- 
ent conditions and acquiring information about new 
lands and peoples; and he did in fact travel far and 
often. An enthusiastic lover of the sea, he was 
never so happy as when sailing over its waves or 
swimming in the surf. At his cottage by the sea — 
" Liberty Hall " he was fond of styling it, for each 
guest was enjoined to follow absolutely his own 
inclinations — his instinct of hospitality was con- 
stantly gratified. In his town-house, too, his friends 
and their friends were always cordially welcomed, 
but at the seashore more could be and were accom- 
modated; his pleasure grew with the possibility of 
keeping "open house" and was considerably en- 
hanced if the guest was one to whom such an outing 
was a rarity. While he delighted in entertaining, 
the simplicity of his own tastes characterised his 
household. Comfort and abundance without osten- 
tation were its watchwords. 

Good-fellowship and a keen enjoyment of social 



26 Henry Morehouse Taber 

life were part of his nature, and his joviality was 
only overshadowed occasionally by bereavement or 
depression caused by heavy business responsibilities. 
His buoyancy of spirit, which must in part be attri- 
buted to his extraordinary physical constitution, 
persisted wonderfully, even in the face of his last 
and wearisome illness. 

With all his light-heartedness, my father was 
peculiarly serious-minded. All his life he had mani- 
fested a deep interest in the mysteries of life and 
death, and as old age approached, increasing leisure 
gave him opportunity for thought and for the wide 
reading of philosophical and religious works. 

From his New England ancestors — those "im- 
passioned seekers after the invisible truth" — he 
inherited not only a keen interest in such search, but 
their own zeal in the conduct of it. The first of 
his name to come to America, Philip Taber, was 
conspicuous as a Baptist. He associated himself 
with Roger Williams and was one of those who 
removed to Rhode Island on account of their non- 
conformity to the prevalent faith in Massachusetts 
and of the consequent intolerance in that common- 
wealth. Another ancestor, Rev. John Lothrop — 
a graduate of Queen's College, Cambridge, and a 
clergyman of the Church of England — renounced 
his orders in 1623 and became an independent 






A Memoir 27 

preacher. On being released from his consequent 
imprisonment at Newgate he migrated to New Eng- 
land ; but even there his' independence of thought 
proved a stumbling-block to his congregation, with 
whom he differed on the subject of baptism. Fran- 
cis Cooke, already referred to, one of the exiles 
from Scrooby, had fled with Bradford to Leyden, 
in order to worship there according to the dic- 
tates of his conscience, before embarking in the 
Mayflower for the haven of rest in America. Still 
another of my father's ancestors, Kenelm Winslow, 
likewise paid the penalty for religious differences by 
being twice imprisoned in England before coming 
to these shores. 

His earliest American ancestor in the Foster line 
(Thomas) was repeatedly called before the Middle- 
sex County Court and punished for breach of ecclesi- 
astical laws. The grand jury found him guilty of 
" absenting himself from the public ordinances of 
Christ on the Lord's day and on days of humilia- 
tion and thanksgiving," and it is further recorded 
that he was "convicted of constant and ordinary 
frequenting the meeting of the Anabaptists on the 
Lord's day " and was "sentenced to pay a fine of 
^5 and costs." The descendants of the latter for 
three successive generations somewhat atoned for 
their forefather's heresy by serving the orthodox 






28 Henry Morehouse Taber 

church in the capacity of deacon. But in the fourth 
generation, James Foster, after some years of such 
service, was converted to Universalism, and his life 
was thereafter rendered unhappy by the opposition 
of his orthodox neighbours. 

On his mother's side, my father's grandparents 
Stephen and Esther Morehouse were members of 
the Congregational Church. The ancestors of this 
grandfather were generally of the Presbyterian 
faith and conservative in their religious views. On 
the other hand, the family of the grandmother (of 
the surname Taylor) were characterised by independ- 
ence of thought and fondness for argument and origi- 
nal investigation. A letter is still preserved that 
was written by Lieutenant Levi Taylor, above men- 
tioned, which sets forth his views on the subject of 
predestination. 

My father's father was not a church-member, 
but his mother was a member of the Dutch Reformed 
Church — a woman of strong will and of deep relig- 
ious faith, conscientiously rigorous in her self-abne- 
gation and in the training of her children. She 
imparted some of her own earnestness to her son 
Henry, though in his case it was differently mani- 
fested. The rather sombre religious atmosphere of 
his youth was not congenial to his intense enjoy- 
ment of life. No more did the enforced attendance 



A Memoir 29 

at religious services and the compulsory observance 
of Sunday harmonise with his love of personal 
liberty. 

So it seems that his independence of thought in 
religious matters was the heritage from some of his 
ancestors of a tendency to break away from previous 
traditional forms of faith, combined with strong 
convictions and great earnestness transmitted from 
them all. As his English ancestors had been 
Protestants against the domination of Rome, and 
those of New England were Protestants against the 
Episcopal hierarchy, so he in turn became a latter- 
day protestant — against all forms of ecclesiasticism. 
A new Puritan was he, having inherited the temper 
but not the theology of Puritanism. 

Upon one thus already out of sympathy with 
institutional Christianity, conspicuous discrepan- 
cies between the professions and the conduct of 
church members could not fail to make a deep 
impression. The experience of suffering large 
financial losses through the misconduct of several 
persons holding high offices in Christian churches 
came as a shock to a man of uncompromising 
integrity and resulted in increasing his hatred of 
religious hypocrisy and in perpetuating his doubt 
as to the efficacy of religious faith to control human 
conduct. 



30 Henry Morehouse Taber 

In the history of the church there was found 
much to offend one who was conspicuous on the one 
hand for his humane feelings and on the other for 
reverence for the " precious right of freedom." The 
barbarities and oppression practised in the name of 
Christianity were also revolting to another of his 
noteworthy traits : in a man lacking his keen sense 
of justice they would have been productive of only 
pity and regret, but in him they excited intense 
indignation. 

As to the modern church, he conceived of dog- 
matism as exercising a thraldom over the minds of 
men from which it was the part of true philanthropy 
to emancipate them. He felt keenly what Matthew 
Arnold has called "the desire for removing human 
error." With him reason was the ultimate and the 
only criterion of creeds. There was nothing in his 
education and training to develop those qualities of 
the imagination to which religion makes its most 
potent appeal. On the contrary there was much in 
his antecedents and in the circumstances of his boy- 
hood to suppress such development. Moreover, 
his attention was increasingly directed to religious 
matters during a period of widespread questionings 
and unrest and change in the world of religious 
thought. His eager thirst for knowledge cordially 
welcomed the results of modern scientific research, 



A Memoir 31 

and his habit of mind — demanding precision, exact- 
ness, certainty — found much that was congenial in 
the definite demonstrations of science. With respect 
to matters of religion there was none of the con- 
servatism that marked his habits of daily life. In 
these matters he was a radical, impatient of the pace 
at which religious thought was moving away from 
traditional forms of faith. Not being susceptible to 
the charm of antiquity or the glamour of tradition, 
he was ever ready, if progress required it, to break 
with the past. 

To a literalist like himself, religious tenets could 
have none but a literal interpretation, and, bereft of 
that, they were deprived of all significance whatever. 
A modern writer, in classifying the " forms pertain- 
ing to the Christian truths," declares that " they are 
true as spiritual experiences to be realised." It was 
my fathers incapacity for spiritual experiences that 
prevented him from thus realising the truths of 
Christianity. The "Vision of God" such as Dante 
saw was not possible to him. The doctrine of the 
Inferno could never be conceived of as a spiritual 
realm that a soul persisting in sin creates for itself; 
and the Immaculate Conception became an unproven 
allegation of fact and failed to signify to him the 
ideal purity and nobility of womanhood. Impossible 
of attainment by him was the attitude of Tennyson: 



32 Henry Morehouse Taber 

" Spirit seems to me to be the reality of the world. 
I feel and know the flesh to be the vision ; God and 
the spiritual the only real and true." 

Nature had withheld from my father one of the 
most potent aids to the imagination by omitting 
from his equipment an ear for music. His lack in 
this respect was complete ; different tunes were to 
him utterly indistinguishable. Thus was this 
entrance into the great realm of fancy and subli- 
mated feeling completely sealed to him. He was 
not among those who are carried on 

The tides of music's golden sea, 
Setting towards Eternity. 

The kinship of music and poetry, through the con- 
necting link of rhythm, is as subtle but as real as 
the translation of poetry into sculpture and painting 
and architecture. How far the dearth of artistic 
perceptions in my fathers nature is traceable to his 
lack of the feeling for music, would be a matter of 
indeterminable speculation; but certain it is that his 
temperament was no more able to bring to the con- 
templation of religious questions a feeling for art 
than his education enabled him to interpret them by 
the aid of mature scholarship. While other minds 
found a mystical or aesthetic significance even in 
doctrines the strict interpretation of which they had 



A Memoir 33 

discarded, the necessities of his conscientiousness 
not only would not tolerate the retention of anything 
that actually conflicted with reason, but forced him 
to abandon everything that was not capable of being 
apprehended by the reasoning faculties alone. 

Thus what may be called spiritual colour-blind- 
ness, deficiency in the sense of beauty, sincerity which 
prevented him from assuming an aesthetic appre- 
ciation that he could not feel, and a vehemence that 
characterised everything he did, combined to produce 
in him a staunch opponent of dogmatic theology. 
His religious attitude was indicated by his member- 
ship in the Manhattan Liberal Club and the Society 
for Ethical Culture. 

Although generally very reticent and while 
fearful of wounding the religious sensibilities of 
others, he had the courage of his convictions and 
was always ready to express his views either in con- 
versation or by means of his pen. A number of 
articles contributed at different times to one of the 
liberal magazines were collected and published in 
book-form a few months before his death. To say 
that in these writings he manifested an incapacity to 
enter fully into doctrines with which he did not 
sympathise would only be to say that he lacked one 
of the rarest of human gifts and would in no wise 
disparage his honesty. If he was incapable of 

LofC/ 



34 Henry Morehouse Taber 

judicial impartiality, he was equally incapable of 
untruth. 

He was a warm advocate of the complete sepa- 
ration of church and state, and the papers referred 
to are largely concerned with the discussion of that 
topic. He believed that there was no constitutional 
warrant for the enforcement of Sunday laws ; he 
favoured non-sectarian public schools and the dis- 
continuance of the office of chaplain in Congress, in 
prisons and in the army and navy, and protested 
against the exemption of church property from tax- 
ation; all of which, he contended, "are questions 
involving the principle of equal rights and exact 
justice to every citizen." 

He was careful to point out repeatedly that he 
spoke not " with any disrespect for the character of 
Christ ; " that he yielded " to no one in admiration 
of the lofty purposes which were the guiding prin- 
ciples of his pure and gentle and altruistic life," and 
that he had no criticism to make of "the true 
followers of Christ." The Christianity that was the 
subject of his rebuke was not the " sympathetic, 
tolerant, humane, loving religion of Christ," nor yet 
" primitive Christianity," but the " collection of 
doctrines enunciated " and " remodelled from time 
to time" by man. His religious ideal was expressed 



A Memoir 35 

by his quotation from "Akbar's Dream," which 
Tennyson describes in these lines: 

I dream' d 
That stone by stone I rear'd a sacred fane, 
A temple, neither Pagod, Mosque nor Church, 
But loftier, simpler, always open-door' d 
To every breath from Heaven, and Truth and Peace 
And Love and Justice came and dwelt therein. 

It has been said that Philosophy aims for the 
True, Religion aims for the Good, and Art aims for 
the Beautiful. The subject of this memoir spent a 
long life in the ardent pursuit of the True and the 
Good ; and if in his quest he accepted not the aid of 
Art, it was only because it had not been given him 
to see clearly the vision of the Beautiful. 



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